***1***
Palis could tell that Shmi was beloved from the way her grave was maintained. It was a small, but decent grave. In front of the tombstone, there were flowers. The freed people told her that they were grateful for Anakin coming here to deliver all of them from bondage.
They became quiet when she questioned whether it was right to kill the slave trader's children.
"We don't care about them. Our children were born into bondage because their parents were slaves. Children of the slavers could be treated as such," one of them finally spoke, and everyone else nodded.
Hurt people hurt people. The cycle of violence was perpetual. But she admitted that she had no place to judge any of them.
After the locals left, she sat in front of the tombstone with legs crossed.
She took off her necklace. The pendant was the kyber crystal that Obi-Wan had gifted her when she left the Order. Concentrating on the green crystal, she channeled the Force into it. She could meditate like a proper Jedi, but she couldn't hear Force speak to her, so meditation was boring.
It was a desperate try. She wondered what Obi-Wan would think if he knew what she was doing, sitting in front of a dead woman's grave and wishing the Force to tell her whether her son was a Sith worshipper and who was his influencer.
She prayed that Force could answer her since the Force was within everyone and it knew everything. Palis waited for hours. The night came. Nothing happened. She kept on waiting. The sky began to lighten to the east and she suddenly found herself no longer on the planet.
She was among the stars. Figures swam in and out of her vision, but she couldn't make out their faces. Disembodied voices talked, laughed, whispered, and shouted, but the actual words were indecipherable. She mentally pictured Anakin, trying to summon him, hoping one of the figures was him.
One of them came close to her. With the sound of hiss, a white lightsaber ignited. The glowing light illuminated the night sky, but she still couldn't see the face of the person who held it.
"Everything ended up here today!" There was an almost mechanical quality to their voice, like a droid or someone speaking through a scrambler. "Each one of you will pay for your crimes properly."
Palis was hit by a blast of dark energy. The white light of the saber bled to scarlet. The hooded figure turned to face her. They had no face, but only two glowing eyes.
The figure knelt down, talking to the void. "The galaxy is riven with injustice. I won't forget where I came from. I owe everything to you. I will pay back your generosity, by committing myself to your teaching, my master."
"Your service as Sith Acolyte ends today," a different voice spoke, sounding older, male, and tantalizingly familiar. "You have already proved your worthiness of being my Apprentice. A powerful Sith Lord you will become. Henceforth, your soul is bonded to mine by the Covenant of the Sith, until death does us part. You shall be known as Darth… "
The voice faded before Palis could catch a name, but she'd heard enough. A Sith Lord. She was struck by a wave of panic so intense it took her breath away.
Was this person Anakin? Was this in the past or in the future, or in some alternative reality? Or was everything actually a trick of the Dark Side, showing her whatever she wanted to see?
The Sith lowered their body, as if they were talking to someone laying on the ground.
"Stop, you cannot go here. It is the land of the dead. Don't go here. I do not allow it," the Sith pleaded. "I can't live without you. If I have to exchange my life with yours, I will pay the price."
Palis was swamped by despair, the same despair the Sith felt. She sensed the figure was losing their life force.
"I have been in love with you for 10 years. I can't lose you like I lost my mother. The Force can create life. My power can save you."
She looked at her crystal. It was radiating red. The Sith Apprentice's anguish and grief were so strong that they had corrupted the crystal being used to channel the Force.
This Sith Apprentice was Anakin. The person he tried to save was Padme. Anakin looked terrible after the confrontation with Dooku on Geonosis.
He didn't want to lose her like the way he lost Shmi.
He had fended off Dooku using … explosives…
She remembered that there had been an explosion of dark energy on that day with thunder-like sounds. Dooku had said that Anakin had attacked him with explosives and escaped. No, it hadn't been explosives. It was Sith lightning.
Who was that Sith Master Anakin pledged to? Dooku? Did Palpatine know his son's secrets?
Everything about Anakin fitted. But there was still a possibility that the vision was about someone else, about multiple persons, or about an ancient Sith. She wanted to tell Obi-Wan about this vision, but she already knew what he would say.
Obsession and paranoia, a trap of the dark side. Her way of meditation was not how Jedi seek guidance from the Force. A Jedi let the Force flow through them freely, they didn't cling to it.
Before she could think about it more, the vision shifted. Two hooded figures were chanting in a ritual.
They drew on the dark side and manipulated it, trying to force it into another sentient being. A brilliant wave of light energy pushed back. The two figures disappeared and the loud cry of a baby interrupted the silence.
"You know who he is. He is the Jedi's prophesied Chosen One," a solemn voice spoke to Palis directly. "He will bring balance to the Force."
A new vision came to her, sending chills down her spine. Everyone in the Jedi Temple was dead, including children. They had been killed at the hands of the clone troopers. A tall humanoid with glowing eyes searched the Temple for survivors with a red blade, walking like the Destroying Angel.
Then another vision kicked in. Standing in front of Chancellor Palpatine, Anakin demanded to know Dooku's role in the Clone's creation.
"Dooku recruited the bounty hunter Fett. Do you know about it?"
"Who told you?" Palpatine demanded vehemently.
Then all the visions ended.
Palis fell back to the real world, exhausted. Seeing her crystal, she winced. The green crystal indeed bled to red.
Ironically, this so-called Jedi Chosen One was a Sith asset. Whoever this Sith Apprentice was, he had already made his decision.
Before she found a place to take a nap, she needed to purify the crystal before she put it back into the necklace.
She concentrated on the crystal and surrounded it with light energy.
***2***
Vader knew he was summoned by the Force. This had never happened to him before, but he learned about a similar incident from the Holocron.
A Force summoning could only be done by Force wielders who were sophisticated in manipulating cosmic Force. Sidious mentioned that Yoda was the only one in the Jedi Order who could do it. Yet, there was another possibility: the person being summoned had given the permission, which Vader had given to his Master alone.
So, this was most likely to be Yoda. It meant he had to be extremely careful, otherwise, he would be exposed, if he had not been yet.
He saw Shmi's grave. It was the dawn of the planet. No one was there except some fresh flowers, probably left by a recent visitor.
He had never come back to visit since her death. Maybe after the war, he could move her grave to Naboo, a place that had the beauty and prosperity that she may not be able to imagine.
However, he didn't want to disturb her peace. He believed that Shmi had rested in peace and peace was a good thing for her.
But not good for him. Peace was a lie.
"Ani, I want you to choose wisely when the time comes," his mother said. "Peace, not violence. Healing, not corruption. Love, not hate. Freedom, not servitude."
Then he was sent back to his office. The vision made no sense to him. How could he ever choose slavery?
But he didn't have the time to think about anything other than the clone brain malfunction problem.
He took out his commlink. A message was waiting for him from an anonymous sender.
"Jango Fett was recruited by a man named Tyranus. A Sith . Use this information wisely."
Vader was in full alarm mode. Dooku participated in the Jedi's commission of the clones under a Sith name. It happened before he betrayed Sidious. But how could he use his Sith name?
He immediately called Palpatine.
"Father, did you just message me?"
Palpatine was still in the diner with Tarkin and the Kaminoan senator.
"No, of course not."
"I just got some information about the clones. Very important," Vader asserted.
"No more talking about the clones," Palpatine said with obvious annoyance. "Not anymore. Your obsession was unprofessional. I have important issues to discuss with my colleagues." He hung up.
Vader felt a flare of anger raised in himself. Why did his Master keep on pushing him away from investigating the clone problem?
And Dooku… What did his participation entail? The clone template was chosen by Dooku! It had a flaw in brain function. A "malfunctioned clone" attacked Palpatine, yet, he said everything was under control.
What else could be more concerning than this issue?
Actually, there was another one. Who was the sender of the message? Were they Kaminoan? Or maybe a Jedi? Why did they emphasize Dooku was a Sith?
Wait. How could they know Tyranus was a Sith name?
Most importantly, why did they send it to Anakin? How was Anakin supposed to use this information? Admiral Anakin Skywalker never showed any interest in the Sith.
Except for the Jedi, who cared about the Sith? No one! It was an old legend and Dooku's anti-Republic propaganda.
Palis Athia. It must be her.
Vader inhaled sharply. She was on Kamino when the clone army was discovered. She was obsessed with the Sith. She called Anakin a Dark Side asset when she was angered by his blog posts, and called Rackeli a Sith she made this connection between him and the Sith and she took this theory seriously.
It only meant one thing.
He must immediately find the source of the brain malfunction, and prove it was deliberately designed by the Jedi. Then they could be dealt with.
Palpatine must immediately activate the Insurrection Act and take all the Jedi down. It didn't matter whether they really would make a coup in the future, which would give Palpatine more legitimate justification. Secretly designing a flawed clone army could be framed as treason.
He needed to do some investigating now . The Sith had a lab on Coruscant. It was where Plagueis did some of his experiments.
"Meet me at the works," he messaged Slick. "I need to scan your brain."
***3***
Rackeli watched the "Jedi Cult" video again. The video connected all the Jedi's wrongdoings together smoothly in one single video. She was marveled by Crusader's talents and passion.
It started with a Jedi teenager dying on the battlefield. Crying parents wanted their younglings back home. (Child Soldier)
Then Jedi Council member Master Kenobi declared the Force-sensitives dangerous, and vehemently condemned the opposition organization Children of the Force. (Bigoted and intolerant)
Immediately, the video jumped to various problematic planetary leaders who had won the Jedi's favor over the Force-sensitive opposition leaders in negotiations. The video depicted how they later ruined the economy and violated sentient beings' rights. (Support oppressive government)
Then a massive anti-war protest in front of the Temple was featured. Speakers passionately condemned the Jedi commissioning a clone army was using child solder and slavery. (Warmongering)
Another scene was a Jedi running the Senate surveillance program. Senators were taken away, later were forced to resign for trivial issues. (Infringe individual freedom)
Then the video presented Count Dooku and Yoda showing up together in old footage during a Senate session. Then the scene shifted to Dooku declaring the start of the Separatists movement. A few scenes of Separatists' atrocities. (Conspire with the enemy to rule the galaxy together)
Later, a few prominent scientists, engineers, and officials from the Navy announced that they were Force-sensitives. The ending scene featured the families of Force-sensitives declaring that the patriotic Children of Force supported liberty for All.
Quite an impressive video.
Unfortunately, Anakin hadn't agreed to participate.
Rackeli had to admit that Crusader's narratives were biased against the Jedi. He took some of Obi-Wan's speech out of context. He chose the worst leaders that the Jedi had supported as examples, yet the opposition side was not any better. As far as she knew, the surveillance program was led by Tarkin with Jedi being tasked to do arrest and questioning.
This was a smear campaign, a small voice in her mind whispered. She brushed it away. Her side must do what was needed to curb the Jedi's power.
They are doing things against the Jedi. They had the new bill filed in the Senate, but she already knew the bill would not pass, even if Chancellor Palpatine dropped his opposition. Most of the senators were afraid of Force-sensitives. They believed the Jedi Order could manage them by training them to serve the Senate's will. The freedom of Force-sensitives was too dangerous for these powerful people. They were in the corrupted business with the Jedi together.
But they would face justice one day. Chancellor adopted a Force-sensitive son who was highly successful in his career. This pair of father and son were fighting against Senate and Jedi corruption one way or another.
Now she had to come back to her task. Crusader was out of his office for an urgent matter. She took over his role. She selected the video and clicked "upload."
"Jedi Cult" was going to be played billions of times in the Galaxy.
***4***
Obi-Wan made sure there was no security camera running when he spoke to Padme in her office.
"What should I do? You are a masterful politician. I need your advice." He put a hand on his forehead. "We are fighting a war, but these radicals felt so compelled to launch a smear campaign."
"Do nothing. Ignore it. When the war is won, the Order can hire a public relations person to handle such misinformation. But don't hire Palis. She took it too personally," Padme said sympathetically.
"I am used to having multiple attack ads aimed at me at the same time. The most recent ones called me a Separatist asset because I was opposing Palpatine's power-grabbing actions. But another one called me Palpatine's agent, the head of the military-industrial complex, and bedmate of a warmonger." She laughed sadly. "Don't take them seriously."
"Agreed." Obi-Wan nodded sharply. "I am leaving Coruscant for Alderaan in an hour. The intelligence department intercepted messages. It says the Separatists will attack a few core worlds as their last-ditch effort. Alderaan is one of the targets. Please remind Bail that he needs to be careful."
The reason that he came here today was neither Alderaan nor the smear video. It was about Palpatine.
Padme had been a powerful leader who opposed Palpatine's more and more authoritarian rule. It impressed Obi-Wan, even though he was not a person who could trust politicians easily.
Padme and he had been in touch since the Naboo occupation. However, when she became engaged to the Chancellor's son, he started to have doubts. After two year's observation, he believed her opposition was not another performative act in the political theater.
She was also a steadfast defender of the Jedi Order.
They two sought each other out in public gatherings, talking about how frustrated they felt about the radical movement, then they shifted the topic to the Chancellor.
Now he was facing a challenge, and Padme may be the solution.
He produced a data card and handed it over to Padme. He had been debating with himself about whether he should tell her about this discovery. The Council would not approve because they still didn't trust her, but Padme was their best chance. Also, she deserved to know this particular intel.
"An advisor of Palpatine was suspected to be the Sith Lord Darth Sidious. There are signs of suspicious activities, but we don't have direct evidence," he whispered. "The Jedi are not allowed to monitor the Chancellor's office. You are his family. You are able to have an eye on him and that advisor."
She looked shocked but quickly collected herself. "It makes sense why he is so into grabbing power if your suspicions are true." She shook her head.
"You do know what this entails, right? If you are found out-"
"Treason. I know," she said determinedly. "It is imperative to take him down if he is led by the Sith. Otherwise, the Republic will be destroyed from within."
"You know the consequences for your relationship with Anakin?"
"I know. I pray that he will understand." She smiled faintly. "Maybe the Force be with you."
"May the Force be with you too, my old friend."
***5***
Slick looked around the medical lab before he laid down on the operation table.
"I didn't know you could do surgeries, sir." Slick swallowed a little bit. He was nervous, but he was not afraid.
Jedi designing a flaw in his and his brothers' brains was an insidious crime. Exposing the crime even at the expense of his life was worthy of it.
"I had performed many medical procedures when I studied life sciences," Skywalker said. He wore a black robe, but he didn't put on his hood the way he did when he recruited Slick.
Life sciences meant his Force sorceries. He gave Slick drastically different feelings when he talked about the sorceries than when he talked about his military endeavor. He was a threatening presence without even using a threatening tone. It must be the power of the Sith.
"I am going to use the scanner to scan your brain, but it will be aided by the Force. You may feel nauseous when you wake up. Now sleep."
His boss waved a hand. The last thing he could remember was Skywalker's glowing eyes before he lost consciousness.
Probably after a few hours, Slick woke up. He indeed felt nauseous, but also a piercing pain on his right side of the head.
Skywalker was sitting in front of a computer, staring at a holo image with a frown.
"What have you done to me?" Slick was confused.
"I removed a tumor in your brain. It was very difficult to discover by normal scanners," he answered without looking back. "You don't need becta. I completely seal the cut."
"Take a seat." His boss gestured to the chair next to him. "I had access to some Coruscant medical facilities which had treated clones' brain trauma before. All the brain images showed the same tumor tissue in the same area. Do you have any idea what it is?"
He turned away from the computer screen and looked at Slick intensively. His eyes were back to being his usual blue, but Slick could see traces of yellowish color.
"Then it is not a tumor. It is a designed thing," he answered tentatively, "maybe a chip, or something like that. Like all the slavers did to their slaves."
His boss flinched. He always had a strong reaction to the word slave .
"Interesting, a slave chip? I know this type of thing. Some can blow the run-away slaves into oblivion, some can function as a tracking device. The worst is programmed to receive signals and control the slave's actions," Skywalker said slowly, a hint of pain in his voice.
"The Jedi are not beyond the worst option, sir," he spat. "You should scan the chip and uncover the information. Then we prove the Jedi crimes."
"Indeed."
Skywalker ordered Slick to leave the operation room so that he could concentrate on the task.
After two hours, he emerged from the room with his face completely pale.
"Sir, have you found anything wrong?"
"No. Everything is normal," he said with a harsh tone.
It was a lie. His boss found something, something very very wrong, but it was beyond Slick's pay grade to know.
***6***
It was truly a mind-control chip. The Jedi indeed was the enemy of liberty. To maintain power, they indeed used the clones as slaves.
Child slaves.
However, after Vader read through the deciphered information, for the first time in his life, he had doubts about his Sith faith.
The chips contained dozens of orders. When triggered, the clones had to follow orders to do whatever they were programmed to. Murder the Jedi. Kill dissent political leaders. Kill Padme.
These orders could only be activated by a certain person's voice.
A voice sample was programmed in the chip. He immediately recognized the speaker.
It was Sidious. He didn't speak with the voice of Palpatine the Chancellor, but Sidious the Sith.
How could it be possible that the Jedi created a clone army that answered to the Sith?
There was no escape anymore. Vader had to face the hard reality.
Sidious had known about the clones from the beginning, and Vader had been kept in the dark. He was never trusted.
Vader was no stranger to cruelty, but he could not stomach slavery.
But what could he do now regarding the clones? He remembered his mother's voice in the vision.
"I want you to choose wisely when the time comes. Freedom, not servitude."
He had thought this would be the easiest decision in the galaxy, but it was untrue.
He had to obey his Master.